


Little He Knows, Little He Sees

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 21:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1137570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Madge teaches Prim to play the piano, Prim admits that there were times when she wondered whether Katniss would make it home. Madge remembers how she had supported Gale through the Games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little He Knows, Little He Sees

Madge had been surprised when Prim approached her, saying she’d heard that Madge had been trying to teach Katniss to play the piano and asked if she would consider teaching her too.

“Weren’t you trying to help her learn it as her talent, before Cinna started working with her on clothes designing?” Prim asked.

“That’s right,” Madge replied. “It didn’t last very long. She mostly prefers to listen to me play.”

Prim smiled. “It probably went as well as my hunting. She and Gale tried to teach me to hunt once. I prefer it when they do the hunting too.”

Katniss had told her about that, although Madge decided not to mention it. Prim had become too upset at the thought of killing animals, and had started crying at one point, which Katniss said scared all the animals away. But Madge couldn’t blame Prim, really. She knew that in the same circumstances, she may well have reacted the same way. She’d coped with learning to use a bow and arrow when Katniss had tried to teach her, but wasn’t sure how she’d have coped with actually killing anything.

“Madge?” Prim asked. “Do you think we could keep it a secret from Katniss that you’re teaching me? I want to surprise her with how I can play.”

Madge smiled. “Of course I will.”

 

Mrs. Undersee had immediately taken to her bed when she had seen Prim arrive. Prim hadn’t appeared to think anything of it – it was common knowledge in District 12 that Mrs Undersee frequently took to her bed. Madge knew that she would never tell Prim the real reason her mother took to her bed when Prim was around, that her mother found it hard to be around either of the Everdeen sisters because the sight of them reminded her about how Katniss had volunteered to save Prim whereas she had remained frozen, and had not pushed herself forward to save Maysilee. 

Prim admitted to Madge that she felt some guilt about the same thing herself, that while she knew she would never have made it home if she had gone to the arena, she had never wanted Katniss to sacrifice herself for her. 

“I made Katniss promise that she had to win,” Prim said. “Before she went, when I said goodbye. And at the time, I really thought she could. But then...you won’t tell Katniss?”

“I won’t say a word,” Madge promised.

“You know Holly?” Prim asked. “The girl in my grade who lives a few doors down from where we used to live before we moved to the Victor’s Village?”

Madge nodded. She knew who Prim meant, having gone through all her schooling with that girl’s sister. It had been Holly’s sister who had accused her once of having her name discreetly taken out at the Reapings so she wouldn’t get selected, just because her father was the mayor, and Katniss had ended up defending her in front of everyone.

“She kept making all these comments about how Katniss was never coming home, because everyone knew that District 12 never won. And I told her at the time that she was wrong, that Katniss was coming home, but I wondered whether she might be right. There were a couple of days...” Prim whispered the next few words in Madge’s ear. “...when I couldn’t face watching her. I haven’t dared tell her yet that there were times when I wondered if she’d come home.”

Madge wondered whether her mother had done the same during Maysilee’s Games. Back then, when Maysilee was a tribute. Madge knew that she had been unable to continue watching after having found out about Maysilee’s death via watching it on the screen. Was there really no better way of handling things? Could they not find some way of notifying family members before they had to see it on screen? No, she answered her own question. The Capitol would just argue that letting the families find out that way was meant to serve as a reminder to the rebels of all the times when Capitol citizens heard about the deaths of their family members through information fed by the jabberjays. And to this day, sometimes Madge’s mother didn’t sit through the mandatory viewing. But back then? No, Madge had never known, and she knew that she would never ask. Maysilee had made it to the final five, her mother must have started to build up some hope by that stage. But in the early days?

*****

And Madge also knew that Prim wasn’t the only person who hadn’t watched all of Katniss’s Games. She’d caught Gale making his way back into District 12 from the woods one day when she’d tried to make her own escape from the house after the atmosphere had all got too much for her, and he’d admitted that he’d felt unable to watch Katniss’s Games that day. 

She didn’t know what impulse had prompted her to say he could come and watch it with her at her house, that she’d be there if he needed her. Madge’s family would keep out of her and Gale’s way. Her father usually watched it in his office, and her mother would likely just take herself to bed again. Maybe it was some way of making up for that stupid remark she’d made to him the last time she’d seen him, about how she’d wanted to look nice in case she went to the Capitol. It had been intended as a joke at the time, her way of trying to make herself feel better. Instead, it had only made her feel worse about how she must have made Gale and Katniss feel.

Madge didn’t know what impulse had prompted Gale to agree. Until then, the majority of their interaction had taken place when Gale and Katniss had come over to sell whatever they’d hunted and gathered on a particular day. She’d known who he was, of course, through Katniss, although they’d never interacted much at school due to being in different grades. Some of the girls in her grade had talked about how good looking he was, but Madge had never really paid that much attention until recently. Neither Madge nor Katniss had ever enjoyed that kind of girly talk. Gale was polite to her because of Katniss, but Madge knew they probably wouldn’t have interacted normally without their mutual friendship with her. It had only been in the last few weeks that Madge had started thinking about Gale in a whole new way, had wondered whether anything could ever happen between them. But every time they did interact, something happened that reminded her all over again that they came from different worlds.

There was a part of Madge that thought that Gale had only accepted her offer to be polite, but that he’d never intended to watch the Games with her. So she was quite surprised when he actually showed up on Day 4. As they watched, Katniss ran through the forest, chased by the tributes from 1, 2 and 4. 

“I had to stop watching it yesterday,” Gale admitted at last after having sat through most of the Games in silence, as they cut to a shot of that guy from 11 who’d kept to himself the entire time. “You know, when she was so weak and dehydrated. Vick had to come and get me when she found the water. And I realised then how pathetic I’d been. She was strong enough to go out there in Prim’s place, and I couldn’t even sit there and watch her.”

“You’re not pathetic, Gale,” Madge reassured him. “We all find it hard watching her. I don’t know about you, but this is the first year that anyone I’ve really known got reaped. It does make it that bit harder knowing her. But I always found it difficult anyway because of my aunt.”

“Your aunt?” Gale repeated.

“She was my mother’s twin sister. Her name was Maysilee, and she went in the Quarter Quell. That’s why my mother takes to her bed so often, because every time she sees another Games, it reminds her of what happened. That’s why I dreaded getting my name pulled out, not for me but for what it would do to my family. That’s why I made those stupid jokes about looking nice for the Capitol, as a way of trying to deal with the thought of getting picked.”  
“I’m sorry,” Gale said awkwardly. “About your aunt, and the way I reacted back then. I didn’t understand you before, but I do now.”

“It’s okay, Gale,” Madge explained. “You weren’t to know. But it does make it harder watching, when it’s someone you know.”

“I’m worried about her, you know?” Gale burst out. “She means a lot to me, always has. I tried to tell her before she left, but they took her away before I had chance to. And now I’m having to watch pretty boy talking in his interview about how he’s been in love with her since forever, and all this talk about the star crossed lovers from District 12, and it just makes me want to break something. All these people falling for that, they haven’t got a clue. That gift she just got there, that was probably from someone who believed it. That’s one reason why I find it hard to watch.”

Madge didn’t know quite what to say to that, and it appeared that Gale didn’t know either, because he avoided her eyes, keeping his gaze fixed on the screen where they were now showing the girl who looked a bit like a fox.

“Hey,” she whispered at last. “Gale. Look at that.”

As they watched, Katniss began to saw through the branch containing the tracker jacker nest.

“She’s gonna get them,” Gale whispered. “What was I thinking? She could do it. Katniss could win. Thanks, Madge.”

He left when the mandatory viewing was over, with only a brief backward glance for Madge and not a thought for anyone but Katniss. Madge couldn’t resent Katniss, who was, after all, the closest thing she had to a friend. But for a moment, it had felt to Madge almost like she and Gale were finally building up, if not the first steps towards a relationship, at least some form of a friendship. But she realised now that he would never see her as long as Katniss was around. 

*****

He’d never come to watch the Games with her again after that day. Prim had said something about how after the first couple of days, Gale had come over a lot and watched the Games with her and her mother. “And Gale always seemed to have so much hope, said he knew that Katniss could do it. He told me what he’d said to her before he left, about how she was stronger than the Capitol and could win. I never liked to admit that I’d had my doubts. He had so much faith in her.”

Madge hugged Prim again, knowing that she would never be the one to betray Gale’s secret. It had obviously comforted Prim at the time that Gale was being strong for her and her mother, and Madge was not going to take that away from her.

 

The song that Prim had eventually decided she wanted to play for Katniss was one that dated back to before the Dark Days, one that was about someone’s hero returning from a war. When Madge saw Katniss’s face light up as she realised Prim had learned this song especially for her, she was glad all over again that she had taught Prim to play.

Prim told Katniss that she had chosen that particular song because Katniss was her hero, and she had always known that she would return. As Katniss hugged Prim, Prim mouthed “Thank you” to Madge over her shoulder, and Gale whispered “That goes for me too.”

Gale loved Katniss, and would never love Madge. She knew that now. But knowing she now had his friendship made it easier for her to bear.


End file.
